Conquered And Seduced

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‘Apollodorus isn’t patient,’ Lucan said as he took her hand and drew her towards the door. ‘But I am, Severina.’

She looked up sharply.

‘Remember that. I won’t rest until I get what I want.’

‘And what do you want, Lucan?’

His eyes were cool and determined when they met hers. ‘You,’ he said. ‘I want you.’

Chapter Seven

‘Don’t look now, but we’re being followed,’ Lucan said as they shouldered their way through the crowded Forum.

She turned impulsively, and he jerked her back around. ‘No! I said not to look around, and what’s the first thing you do?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Let’s do this my way, shall we? In a minute I’m going to stop and put my arms around you and kiss you. And despite my outstanding abilities as a lover, you’ll have to keep your head together and attend to business.’

Severina’s heart clenched with abrupt, intense longing. She was half-afraid he was teasing—and totally afraid he wasn’t.

He chuckled at her startled expression. ‘Relax, will you? I’m not trying to seduce you. While you’re in my arms, you’ll look over my shoulder and tell me whether you know the man who’s following us. Tell me if you’ve ever seen him before.’

‘But you have to kiss me?’

‘Yes. I think maybe he’s merely a hopeful suitor smitten by your beauty. If so, he’ll turn aside when he sees our kiss. If he doesn’t, then he’s either damned persistent or up to no good.’

‘Smitten by my beauty? You can’t be serious.’

‘Don’t laugh. I’m entirely serious. I once followed a beautiful woman through Ostia for an entire afternoon: to the butcher’s shop, the vegetable market, the clothing vendors. I was in serious pursuit, until a man built like a gladiator joined her for an afternoon at the theatre. The minute he kissed her, I abandoned all my romantic hopes.’ Lucan sighed dramatically. ‘A woeful tale, but true.’

‘She must’ve been a great beauty.’

‘She was. But then, so are you.’

Severina made a sound of disbelief.

‘Do you find it so hard to believe that you’re beautiful?’

Severina didn’t answer.

‘Trust me,’ he said quietly. ‘You hold a sensual allure that any normal man would desperately long to explore. It’s almost mystical, Severina, and very compelling.’ He shook his head. ‘So I don’t blame that man for following you. But I do need to make sure he’s not dangerous.’

He pointed up the street. ‘See that small alcove there? It’s perfect. I’ll push you back gently against that wall and I’ll kiss you. You pretend to go along, but you’ll really be looking behind me for a tall, angular man with black hair and a thick beard. Not many Romans wear a beard, so look for that. It’ll make him easier to spot.’

‘Look for a beard,’ Severina repeated.

‘Yes.’ Lucan glanced at her almost sympathetically. ‘We’re almost there. Let me know when you’re ready.’

Severina drew in her breath, knowing she’d never really be ready.

At her word, Lucan halted and pulled her into his embrace, carrying her backwards with him to the stone wall and into a passion that felt far more real to her than feigned. The moment his lean body made full contact with hers, Severina gasped. ‘Lucan! Oh, no.’

‘Look. Look for him!’ His command was hard and breathy. Then his lips came down on hers.

Severina was suddenly drowning in sensation. Thought fled away beneath the primitive power of Lucan’s kiss. His hands held her, clenched tightly in the folds of her cloak. His body held her, pressed hard and tightly against his own.

His breath seared her lips.

‘The man, Severina! Look for him!’ Lucan’s low-voiced command forced her to open her eyes. She struggled for coherence, fought the flood of sensation, but Lucan’s lips were warm as they returned to her mouth, tracing a light path across the sensitive edge of her lips, a whisper of touch, barely there, teasing, making her wish for more.

Her lips parted, and her breath sighed out between them. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, fingers pressing into his muscle in an unspoken request for something deeper, firmer, something—

‘Look for that man,’ Lucan growled.

She resented having to look when what she really wanted was Lucan’s kiss. And his hands on her body. And his—

‘I see him,’ she said finally, her eyes closing languidly even as she spoke. She didn’t want to think about anything now but the feel of Lucan’s arms around her, his powerful body holding her firmly against the wall. He felt beautiful, so mighty and so strong. A warrior and a lover, as fully man as she was fully woman.

His lips touched on her chin, her cheek, her brow, so careful with her. She didn’t want such reticence. She wanted his lips to come back to her mouth, so that her stomach fluttered hard and made her ache. She wanted to taste him, to burn in deep places. To grow weak and hot and…to feel utterly wonderful.

Lucan pulled back to look down into her face. ‘Sweet hell and damnation, Severina. Don’t do this to me.’

He took a ragged breath that shuddered all the way through her. She could feel his tension and his growing desire; their bodies were indecently close.

‘Pay attention to that stranger. Do you know him? Have you ever seen him before?’

‘No.’

‘He’s still there?’

She could barely open her eyes. Her lashes rose, fluttered, fell again. ‘No.’

Relief rolled through Lucan. His muscles loosened a little as he drew in a long breath. His hands released her cloak. Severina sensed his intention to pull away and suddenly she didn’t want that.

‘Don’t go.’ The words were her own, but they sounded strange.

He went immediately still.

There was a moment when everything hung in the balance, when the world stopped and even time itself slowed.

His growl of surrender gave her a fierce and immediate satisfaction. His mouth came down hard on hers, tasting of strong, raw desire. This time, he gave her no light kiss. It did not flirt or tease at the edges of her mouth.

It took her breath and demanded even more. It was hot and hungry, possessing, devouring.

Severina’s knees weakened and Lucan pushed her into the wall with the hard pressure of his body. The rough stones dug into her backside, but she welcomed the brutal sensation.

She was alive, gloriously alive, wanting this man, needing him, aware of his answering desire as his lips left her neck and burned down her throat. Aware that his lower body ground hard against her skirts, pulsing against her aching core, soothing and arousing at once. She wanted to part her legs and let him slip into place between them. She wanted more, and she wanted it harder, faster, hotter.

Lucan groaned as he pulled away. ‘Not here. Not now. Not like this.’

He steadied her with one hand as his supporting weight was withdrawn, leaving her limp and miserable against the cold wall, her knees trembling, her loins moist and suffused with fire.

Lucan ran an agitated hand through his hair. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.’ His eyes seemed abnormally dark, a deep green forest burning with gold fire, the pupils wide.

Long moments passed. Severina fought for control.

‘Don’t apologise,’ she said finally. ‘It wasn’t your fault. I wanted it, too, and that’s what frightens me.’

‘It frightens you?’ He made a sound of exasperation. ‘Forgive me, but you hardly seemed frightened just now.’

‘Maybe it’s myself I’m afraid of. Or maybe it’s the way you make me feel. So hungry, so out of control. And it’s always been that way with you, never with anybody else. Just you, because…because I want to yield to you.’

‘Then do it.’

‘I can’t. It tears me inside to think of submitting to a man, any man, even you.’ Severina brushed tears away with the heel of her hand. ‘But then there’s this…this passion between us. I’ve denied it, fought it, hated and loved it…and still it’s there. And it will be there if we marry.’

‘And that would be a bad thing?’

‘I don’t want to lose myself to you.’

His expression grew immediately wary. She could only guess at his thoughts.

He looked away, his jaw working in agitation. ‘I won’t hurt you,’ he said after a long moment of silence. ‘I’ll take nothing from you but what you willingly give me.’

‘But there’s the problem, don’t you see? I’d willingly give you everything. Then you’d control me, Lucan. You’d own me.’

Lucan exhaled deeply. ‘Fear. Always fear. And you’ll never tell me why, damn it. And in the meantime, you’re missing so much. We’re missing so much.’

‘I’m sorry, Lucan. I don’t mean to hurt you.’

‘You say I would own you,’ he went on, ‘but that’s not true. No person can ever truly own another. But bodies and minds and hearts…they can be shared, Severina, and there is joy in that. Not pain, as you fear.’

His face softened, becoming more gentle and sad. He lifted a hand to her face and stroked warm fingertips down the smooth line of her jaw. ‘Don’t fear my possession, for you would own me, too. We would take from one another. We would give to one another. Marriage would make us better and stronger, never less. Only more. Trust me.’

She closed her eyes against such sweet seduction.

‘Who was the man who hurt you before?’ he growled. ‘I would willingly sheath my dagger in his heart for you. But, Severina…know that I am not he. All men are not the same. Whatever pain you experienced in the past, whatever this hurt that makes you fear and cleave to your freedom…I swear you’ll never know it again. To my dying day I’ll protect and cherish you. Do you believe me?’

His gaze captured hers and she saw how sincerely he meant the words. ‘Yes,’ she answered truthfully. ‘I do believe you.’

But she still couldn’t find enough faith to yield.

Neither could she explain. There was still much she didn’t understand and until she did, she’d have to endure the deep hurt in Lucan’s eyes.

Unless she moved on.

The thought had come before, but she’d avoided it. She couldn’t avoid it now. It probably was time to pull up stakes and leave Rome, taking on a new identity in some other place.

Maybe she’d grown too complacent. Maybe in grasping for happiness, she’d exposed both herself and Lucan to danger.

Leaving would be the most drastic solution to the questions she couldn’t yet answer, and it had disadvantages. She’d leave behind people and dreams she valued. She’d hurt Lucan—again.

But leaving had even more advantages. She’d leave behind her confusion. She’d never have to decide whether to divorce Lucan or yield to her desire for him, and she’d protect both of them from the secrets of her past.

It was time to leave.

Her eyes filled with tears at the thought. She blinked them away quickly, before Lucan could see.

He took her hand and raised it to his lips, brushing a warm kiss across her knuckles. ‘We’ll discuss this later. Now we must go. Apollodorus will be waiting.’

Apollodorus had sent word to Lucan that he’d be at the work site of the new forum being constructed for Emperor Trajan. Lucan was glad it wasn’t far from where he and Severina had just enjoyed one of the most arousing sexual episodes of his life. Her passion amazed him, even though he’d done nothing more than kiss her.

Doubtless he’d regret not doing more while lying alone in his cold bed later. She’d almost been willing, and he’d probably been a fool to turn away from that. But like any lucky madman who gambled for high stakes, he’d gathered his hopes into one huge pile and staked everything on the still-undetermined roll of the dice.

Maybe he could have had one long afternoon of magnificent pleasure with Severina, but he’d rather have her pledge her life to him for ever.

Yet she had admitted that she desired him, and that made him feel like a king. At least passion hadn’t died. It had always been strong between them, burning white-hot from almost the first moment he’d laid eyes on her outside the granary of Donatus’s farm. He’d been faithfully serving the Christ at the time, but he’d still been carnal man enough to notice Severina’s well-shaped feminine attributes. He’d decided on the spot that this woman would be different from the rest. The statuesque beauty with flame in her hair and eyes of cool grey would someday become his lover and his wife.

Such noble intentions hadn’t always eased the lust they’d felt, but his sincere commitment to his faith, and Severina’s sincere commitment to helping him honour that, had somehow kept them from free-falling into uncontrollable desire.

Today they’d both known the barrier of his faith was gone.

Anything might happen between them now, and Lucan couldn’t fault either of them for wanting to assuage the hunger that had gnawed their bones for long months now.

But truthfully, he had to claim most of the guilt for this current episode of it. That wonderful seduction in the popina had been one of his finest moments, and he’d enjoyed every tender nuance of it. Severina had almost combusted on the spot. But she wasn’t the only one feeling that sweet, familiar tension. His manly parts had throbbed the entire time.

Delicious. And he wasn’t thinking of the food.

Now his passion had cooled. Colder reason had taken its place. He was gradually putting together all the pieces of Severina’s complicated puzzle, piece by delicate piece, and beginning to touch the sensitive place of her core fears.

She didn’t want to lose control. She was desperate to retain her independence. She feared losing herself, even to something as wonderful as desire.

But the most worrisome part, the elusive piece he did not yet have, was why. As badly as he wanted her body, he wanted one other thing more—her trust. Only when she shared her past with him would he feel like he’d won her. And that, he now realised, would take more time and patience.

He was, however, no novice in the art of siege warfare. He meant to discover those secrets, and he meant to wed her. The only thing that bothered him, as he led her up the long street towards the building site on the hill of the Quirinal, was the issue of time.

Whether she married him or whether she didn’t, the censor’s hearing was all that kept them together. That hearing would be held in three weeks, and Lucan wasn’t sure three weeks would be long enough.

But he’d gone into battle with worse odds before.

Lucan was being too quiet. It worried Severina that he’d been so talkative before, but was withdrawn now. She shouldn’t have told him how she wanted him. Their relationship was confused enough already without throwing passion into the mixture.